Waterworld
Waterworld is the eighth issue of Jump Leads, a mini-story comprising of six pages. The story holds the distinction of being the first and, to date, the only story produced without involvement of either Ben Paddon or JjAR, the co-creators of the webcomic. All six pages were written and drawn by Kris Carter, with a cover eventually being provided by JjAR. The comic was originally produced as Guest Filler for the month of September 2009, with the first four pages running during a period when JjAR was taking time away from the comic to focus on his career as a Freelance Artist. However the story it interrupted, Rogues and Scallywags, resumed when JjAR returned from hiatus. The first four pages were repeated in a "rerun" from December 9th to 14th, with the fifth and sixth pages going up on December 15th and 17th respectively. The same day as the final page went up, the issue's front cover (provided by JjAR) also went live, which means that Waterworld is the first and only Jump Leads story to present the cover at the end of the run, not the beginning. Plot The Flurry makes a water landing in the middle of a featureless blue ocean and, much to Llewellyn's surprise, the ship floats. He's keen to jump away, while Meaney is interested in hanging around and seeing if anything interesting presents itself. It does - in the form of a large, apparently aged ship. which crashes into the Flurry. The ship grabs the Flurry out of the water with a large mechanical claw. The Flurry's door is pulled open and a Pirate Captain (wearing contemporary clothes and an eyepatch) forces our heroes out of their vessel. He demands to know the nature of the Flurry, and Llewellyn fills him in on who they are, what the Flurry is, and what its capable of. The Pirate Captain, fed up of his life aboard a featureless world and apparently disillusioned with his crew, aggressively demands that Meaney and Llewellyn take him with him. While aboard the Flurry, Meaney initiates a "pre-Jump sequence" which he says cannot start as the main engine is flooded. When eh says he'll need to get out and push the Pirate Captain says he'll do it - "You chumps ain't goin' nowhere" - but while he's outside the Flurry Meaney activates the Recall Switch and they disappear, leaving the Pirate aboard his own ship. Appearances * Richard Llewellyn * Thomas Meaney * Pirate Captain Canonical Status Jump Leads co-creator Ben Paddon has declared that Waterworld is in-canon, making the story the first guest-produced content to be included in the story proper. It's likely that the story takes place somewhere between Trojan Horse and Rogues and Scallywags, as Meaney and Llewellyn's clothes don't show any of the damage seen at the end of Rogues. Extra Continuity * Apparently the Flurry is buoyant, capable of floating in water. Whether this is an intended design of JumpShips or is merely a happy coincidence is unknown. * Not for the first time, Llewellyn comments on the mundane nature of their location only to have that mundanity shattered by plot developments. ** This is a sign, really, that Llewellyn should probably keep his mouth shut. * Somehow the Pirate Captain is able to force the Flurry door open from the outside. Either there is some kind of hitherto unseen catch or release mechanism for the door, or the Captain is incredibly strong. Considering he was able to open the door with his bare hands while an army of Deadly Deadly Robots were unable to smash the door in, the former suggestion is likely applicable. ** Or, y'know, Meaney or Llewellyn opened the door first. Which seems uncharacteristically dumb of them. * Neither Meaney nor Llewellyn have ever had to initiate a "pre-Jump sequence" before, which probably means Meaney worked out the entire ruse in the time it took for the Pirate Captain to get on board the ship. Cultural References * The title of the story may be a reference to the Kevin Coster movie Waterworld, a story set in Earth's own future where the polar ice caps have melted leaving the planet covered in a vast ocean. ** Llewellyn directly refers to the Pirate Captain as a "cast-off Waterworld villain", and indeed the pirate's shaven head and eye-patch is reminiscent of the Deacon, the villain of the film played by Dennis Hopper. * Llewellyn compares the lifelessness of the planet to that of a bottle of Vimto, a fruit-flavoured soft drink sold in the UK. * The oceanic ship crashing into the side of the Flurry may be an homage of sorts to the 2007 Doctor Who Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned, which begins with a spaceship modeled in the form of the RMS Titanic crashes through the side of the Doctor's TARDIS. Trivia * This is the first mini-issue to get its own cover art, which is also the first cover not to feature Meaney or Llewellyn in any form. * This is first issue of the comic to go out with daily updates as opposed to twice weekly. External Links * [http://www.jump-leads.com/comic/194 Waterworld at Jump-Leads.com] Category:Comic issues